Pesticide Cleanup Put At $6.8 Million Federal Government To Pay 90% Of 6-year Tower Co. Project In Lake

July 29, 1987|By Jim Runnels of The Sentinel Staff

CLERMONT — The Environmental Protection Agency and the state will spend $6.8 million over six years to clean the contaminated Tower Chemical Co. site.

The federal agency will pay for 90 percent of the project, which will include purification of groundwater, the burning of pesticides in the soil and installation of purification units for nearby water wells.

Tower Chemical operated from 1957 until 1981, when the federal agency ordered the plant closed. The plant, off Lake County Road 455 between Clermont and Winter Garden, produced several pesticides and used DDT in the manufacturing process.

DDT, also a pesticide, has been banned since 1972 after the government found that it harmed birds and fish and could cause cancer in humans.

The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation has agreed to the cleanup plan. Secretary Dale Twachtmann is expected to sign a letter of intent and send it to federal officials within a month.

The government's plan will be published in the Federal Register for additional comment. If no objec-

tions are made, the cleanup will begin in 1988 and is scheduled to end in 1993.

A spill from an overflowing holding pond first attracted federal enforcement efforts, which led to the closing of Tower Chemical.

A $1 million emergency cleanup was done in 1982. It included the removal of tons of poisoned soil. An Interior Department report in 1985 said evidence of DDT poisoning had been found in alligators in nearby Lake Apopka.

Although the EPA and about a half-dozen other federal and state agencies say the contamination is not a public health threat, officials are worried that the pesticides, heavy metals and organic compounds at the site will get into the Floridan Aquifer.

Federal officials believe groundwater movement and ancient sinkholes could allow the contamination to reach the aquifer, the state's main water supply. There are no public water supplies nearby so about 60 homes use private wells for drinking water.

Two wells, one at a potting-soil business on the site and another at a private residence nearby, will be fitted with water purification units until the cleanup is done.

One of the wells showed contamination after the 1980 spill, but neither shows contamination now, according to the report.

At the main site a groundwater purification system will be built. Groundwater will be pumped out, filtered and then tested to make sure contaminants are removed.

The report states that purification of groundwater will continue for as long as 10 years if necessary.

Two steel chemical tanks will be decontaminated. About 4,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil will be excavated and burned in an incinerator at the site. Sludge from the steel tanks will be burned, as will any barrels of chemicals unearthed. Although EPA says no records exist of buried drums, rumors abound of more hidden chemical containers.

The plant was owned by Ralph Roane, a former chairman of the Lake County Pollution Control Board. The company settled with the federal government for $10 million in compensatory damages, but that judgment has not been paid.